Haha, well I've seen a few listings on Fred Miranda where people buy too much camera for either themselves or for spouses/kids. I'm hoping someone makes the same mistake with the d400. You bring up good points, I think I would have an easier time selling the d7000. I can always sell for money and use that towards my next purchase. Who knows - I may just decide that the d7000 or d300s is exactly what I need (which is what I'm trying to figure out) before I buy.

What makes you think a D400 owner would want to go back to either a D300s or a D7000? ;-)

If you sell it next year, your market for the D7000 will probably be bigger, but since it just came out you might lose more money on it as a fraction of what you pay for it by the time you sell it. Then again, it might be about the same in each case if a D400 replaces the D300s because that would likely drive the price of a used D300s down while the D7000 will still be leading its class.

Thanks for the help! This will be my first dSLR and I haven't received the same help and time on dpreview's forums...

You identified the settings you can manually control on the d7000...but can the d300s do the same? Anyone else know?

And yes, I'm leaning towards d7k now. Another factor I'm considering is resale value...because I'd like to trade up to the d400 when it's out. For this reason, I may go with the pro d300s for a year and sacrifice on the d7k video so I have a better chance of reaching a deal with a d400 user. Or do you think the typical d400 buyer (and then seller) would be more interested in the new d7000?

Welcome to the forum, kmad. I used to own the D300, but I don't have experience with the D300s's video. Maybe someone else can tell you what manual control you have with that. As far as the D7000 goes, it has weather sealing like the D300/D300s, so that shouldn't be an issue. Also, it does have a faster AF system than the D90 if that's what you're comparing it to (I want to say subjectively that its AF is as fast as the D300 was, but I don't have data to back that up so you can judge the truthiness of it).

The D7000 is a better option for video, though, for one huge reason: the video codec (H.264 in a mov wrapper vs. motion jpeg in the D300s). As far as manual controls are concerned, you have manual control of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO with the D7000 in video. EDIT: I should mention, however, that with G lenses only shutter speed and ISO can be changed after entering live view. Aperture is set. If you want you could work around this with a lens that has an aperture ring. I should also probably mention that the D7000 will shoot 30fps at 720p if 24fps isn't your target frame rate.

This is not to mention the D7000's 16MP vs 12MP for stills, and better high ISO performance and dynamic range. The U1 and U2 modes on the D7000 are great, as well.

The reasons to get the D300s are if you have an investment in CF cards since it has both CF and SD slots, ergonomics (it does have a better feel to it than the D7000), and if you have an investment in EN-EL3e batteries. AF is a toss-up in my opinion.

Anyways, I was wondering which camera gives the user the most manual control over video settings. This seems to be the last factor I'm considering. I don't think I'd be using AF much on the d7000 anyways, so I want to look into purchasing the one that gives me the most control. Please elaborate on what exact settings can be manually controlled and what cannot on each camera. And if you would like, please recommend one!

The weatherproof body and quick AF system is really appealing on the d300s. But if the d7000 is a better video option, I may sacrifice these qualities for a better low-light camera with higher resolution. I think I could do without the extra sealing and old but effective 51pt system. Such a tough decision, I wish someone could make it for me :)